Nearly half of Japanese against reactor restarts, poll finds

Nearly half of Japanese people are against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to restart nuclear reactors that meet new safety standards, a Jiji Press opinion poll showed Friday.

The proportion of people who oppose the nuclear policy came to 49.7 percent, against 41.1 percent who back it, according to the survey.

The poll showed that many Japanese remain cautious about the restart of nuclear reactors despite the tighter standards.

Supporters of Seikatsu no To (People’s Life Party) and Midori no Kaze (Green Wind), both small opposition parties, fully opposed the restart of reactors.

The proportion of party supporters who oppose reactor restarts came in at 87.5 percent for the Social Democratic Party, 76.9 percent for the Japanese Communist Party, 68.2 percent for Your Party, 66.7 percent for the Democratic Party of Japan, 57.9 percent for New Komeito and 57.1 percent for Nippon Ishin No Kai (Japan Restoration Party).

By contrast, 56.4 percent of supporters of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party back restarts, while 35.5 percent opposed them.

The survey was conducted over the four days through Monday, the day the new safety standards were put into effect, receiving responses from 1,298 adults nationwide.

At present, only two reactors out of the nation’s 50 viable units are in operation. The rest remain idled in light of the triple-meltdown disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant that started in March 2011.